Blog 005 – St. Augustine and the Watermaker

St Augustine
This morning I am sitting in the cockpit enjoying water so still every ripple is casting a reflection of the boats and homes next to the water. The birds are singing, a little morning traffic is going over the bridge, we just watched another perfect sunrise. One of the boats here in the anchorage just slipped out to head north on the waterway, it’s motor barely making a sound in the cool morning air. The palm trees on shore not even ruffling a leaf in the still air. Life is good today.

We extended our stay to fix a water maker. A water maker that we did not know was needing to be fixed. I didn’t want to try it in Brunswick, GA because the water there is so dirty. The marina sits in an inlet that really only cleans out with the tide, so most of the day the reeds and muck just sit around until the tide rolls in and washes it out to the river. Don’t get me wrong, Brunswick Landing Marina is a great place and beautiful to see, but the water isn’t clean. So our water maker was pickled (prepared for non-use) and we had fresh water from the dock. But now we are cruising. We rolled into St Augustine with half a tank- that’s just 100 gallons. So it was getting time to start the water maker. I have never actually done this before so I had to read the instructions several times. Then I called Mark, the guy who re-built this boat, and talked with him for awhile. Two problems: the pickling chemicals had to be flushed from the whole system, and we needed fresh reverse osmosis (RO) water to flush and shut down the system. Even the slightest bit of chlorine will ruin the membrane that filters out the salt from the sea water. At $700 each (and we have two of them) this one mistake would be costly. Our tanks still had chlorinated water in them and it takes 10 days for that to evaporate. It’s only been six. So Mark said don’t flush when you are done just make water every few days. The salt water will not hurt the system. Flush when all the chlorine is gone. Go ahead and flush with fresh RO water then. So here it goes, I have all the valves lined up, the generator is running, flip the red breaker switch while holding the start button for 60 seconds, look for green light to come on…..nope… breaker trips, no green light! So try again…here we go again, and once more same result. So like an Idiot I try again… You know, expecting a different result ….I am an eternal optimist…hmm same result. Let’s check the engine room… Oh crap! Flooding in the engine room!!!! Shut the hull valve. What happened?

There is a check valve that decided to come apart at the seems, literally. Later I found pieces of its insides stuck in the pre-filter just floating there like a fish in a fish bowl. So I mopped the water up and started looking for the part in our vast supply of spare parts. Nope, not so lucky (by the way, you should never attempt plumbing on a Sunday. – Today is Sunday. I learned this many times over out on the Ranch. If something is going to happen, it’s going to happen on Sunday when all the stores are closed). So we planned a trip to get parts.

Sailors Exchange. This is a place as famous as its neighbor, Ripplees Believe It or Not, that’s just a few blocks over. If you’re a sailor it’s the Mecca of all things nautical; a virtual buffet of every boat thing you never knew you always wanted. With enough money you could build your own boat right off the shelves of this one place. If you are a boat owner it is a once in a life time visit that cannot be passed up. It would be like going to New York and not seeing the Statue of Liberty or going to South Dakota and not stopping in to see Mount Rushmore. Yeah, it’s like that other wonder of the world. So here we are. This place is floor to ceiling nautical stuff. Boxes of stuff the staff who work here do not even realize is here. They must buy all the hardware from every yacht that ran aground here for the last five hundred years, which is entirely possible because this city has been here since 1565 – much older than the United States has been a country. Yup, here it is. The part we came for… and two back packs filled with fish hooks and line and turnbuckles and cup holders on gimbals. The stuff we never knew we always wanted. Let’s get out of here quick before we break our budget! (We did come back the next day and buy two folding bikes).

So I installed the part, and cleaned the filter bowl, put in a new 20 micron filter, started the generator, flipped the red breaker, held down the start button, look for the green light….wait for it…. Yes! We are going green..success. I spent the next few hours filling the water tanks with sweet fresh water. I cleaned up my tools and watched the sun go down. The building next to us has a rooftop lounge with a live band playing oldies and the night life here is in full swing. We are enjoying cold drinks from our newly made fresh water supply and all is right with the world.

We now understand the sailor definition for cruising: fixing stuff in beautiful places. We must be cruisers now. God is good.